Floyd rose vs hard tale (string tension)

nezvers

nezvers

Beast
Oct 5, 2010
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Latvia, Riga
I bought Schecter Damien Elite 7 FR (because at that time it was only available Damien Elite 7 on ebay and was new). I love it much, but when it comes to lowest notes strings have flubby notes and feel (drop A tuning). 6th sting having a little flub on open, but bearable.
My friend had 8 string Damien elite with hard tale and I remember notes being tight.
I've been using Dunlop Heavy core 10-60 set and thinking, that I should try thicker gauge. Only thicker I found was Ernie Ball Slinkie 7 Cobalt, which is stupidly pricey for me (more than 2 sets of same Dunlop string set), because cheapest is only on Ebay and from USA (To Europe>Latvia).
Also I looked into 8 string sets which seems to be cheaper and having thicker strings, but if that's Floyd Rose, than I'm better off to sell my dear Damian Elite.

EDIT:
Also I've installed Hipshot tremsetter, because I have hate relationship against FR.
If Evertune mounting would be cheaper than selling my guitar and buying new one, than it would be way better solution.
 
from a short looking at the specs of both guitars, i immediatly noticed that the 7string has an 26.5" scale, whilst the 8string has 28"

THAT makes an immense difference!!

http://www.schecterguitars.com/international/guitars/damien-elite-8-2013-12-10-detail
http://www.schecterguitars.com/international/guitars/damien-elite-7-fr-detail

i dont think your string "issue" will be solved if you just swap out for the same guitar, only with a different style of bridge.
the tension on the strings will remain the same, only the sound maybe slightly different.

if your strings feel flubby, you only can try thicker strings, or buy a guitar with longer scale
or change the tuning (to a higher one, most likely not an option in your case ;) )
 
Isn't 26.5" scale one of longest for 7 stringers (most having 25.5")? Ibanez and other that have 25.5" seems to have tight sound, can't really check them for myself, but since everybody that have them are happy with it.
 
Floyds definitely feel different both to the picking and fretting hand. Usually looser indeed because when you pick hard, fret hard, or apply hard vibrato, the floyd tends to give a little.

Block it. It will feel different. Will it make the strings feel stiffer? Yep. Will it make the strings feel MUCH stiffer? I guess that's different to everyone, but I don't think it will make a world of difference either.

Oh, my bad, I saw you already blocked it. I think the Evertune has a similar kinda Floyd-ish feel regarding string tension anyeway.
 
I have never been able to personally get Floyd style bridges and lower than normal tunings to work. I had a pretty impressive tech do a setup / intonation reset on a nice Ibanez I used to have and it was pretty great (the guy built guitars for Judas Priest). Sadly once I had to restring it I was back to square one. So im pretty sure if your a Wizard with these things you can make it work pretty well but its advanced stuff. My advice is to find the best guitar tech you can and have them walk you through a setup and if after that you still dont like the feel it might be best to sell it for a non floyd guitar.
 
Mike Moriarty said:
How tight do you want it? Electrics aren't supposed to play like acoustics.
Click to expand...

From my view point acoustic guitars aren't associated with tight strings n stuff.
My influence of tight strings is Josh from Sylosis. I know that he have settled for 0.49" string on low E.
And for first 6 strings for standard tuning I don't really have issues. But on 7th around last 5 semitones, when tremolo picked and without palm muting sound flubby and without 100% distinct note and same with open string palm muted.
I like to have harder picked sound (even without thinking that I'm heavy picker), but it sound like string can't manage to get in note before next pick.

Hipshot tremsetter is set pretty hard and I can pull string with hand 2-3x further than I could do it by picking and other strings doesn't change pitch.
 
I assume by 'drop A' you mean E-B-G-D-A-E-A, top to bottom
I think you're answering your own question, perhaps your friend's 8 string feels tight (in A or G on his bottom string?) because he's using a 28'' scale (vs your 26.5'') and .064 and 0.80 on his two bottom strings.

A 26.5'' may not feel tight with the bottom tuned on A unless you use a thicker string there, a longer scale could be a more ideal solution imo.

You can purchase an 8 string set and experiment with using only 7 of them, I buy 7 string sets for my 25.5''-6 string gtr, and use only the bottom 6 to help make it tighter on C standard (all the strings dropped 4 semitones that is, and the bottom 4 end up being wound strings). If that doesn't work then a bigger scale guitar could be a better solution.
 
Yeah, thinking to experiment with 8 string set on. If that will fail, than I'll have to say goodbye to my guitar.
Still thinking That scale lenght 26,5" shouldn't be problem, since most of other 7stringers have 25,5". I wasn't sure which is culprit - string gauge or Floyd rose.
 
nezvers said:
Still thinking That scale lenght 26,5" shouldn't be problem
Click to expand...

Since you're only dropping the bottom string 2 semitones from standard tuning (I wasn't sure you were) I'd imagine it could suffice if you swap the 7th or the bottom two for a thicker gauge. An 8 string set will give you more options to experiment and see what fits you best.
 
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